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Luminar is almost magical for aerial photography. Using the free bundled Aerial presets, the images spring to life. And this is one of the scenarios where I think Luminar 2018 is the perfect plugin complement to Lightroom.

Take a look at this round trip from Lightroom to Luminar and back.

Unedited drone image sent to Lightroom using the Luminar 2018 plugin.

Returned image after using an Aerial preset in Luminar. The entire process took about 1 minute. Photo by Derrick Story.

Setting this up is easy. First, make sure the plugin is enabled by opening Luminar 2018, and going to "Luminar 2018" > Install plugins. There are four choices: Lightroom, Photoshop, Aperture, and Photos. Click on Lightroom. The open Lightroom, find an image, and go to File > Plugin Extras > Transfer to Luminar 2018.

Enhance the image in Luminar 2018 and click the Apply button. The edited image will return to your Lightroom catalog. It's that easy. And the results are amazing.

Rock Luminar with my new Essential Training

You learn all the ins and outs of Luminar 2018 via my Essential Training on lynda.com and on LinkedIn Learning. It's fun, and I promise, you will learn a lot.

You can share your thoughts at the TDS Facebook page, where I'll post this story for discussion.

For many of us, Luminar has evolved from an app that we use some of the time for special images, to most of the time in our daily workflow. As a result, efficiency is more important than ever. And keyboard shortcuts really help with that.

I have my favorites that I use all of the time, and I thought that you might want to learn these as well. (These and others are from the Skylum Luminar User Manual page. Windows shortcuts are there as well!)

For controlling the interface, I use:

\ Activates before/after comparison. When the key is pressed, the original image will be shown. Releasing the key will reveal the enhanced image. This is much faster than moving the mouse pointer up to the top toolbar.

Tab Show/Hide the Preset panel at the bottom of the window and Side panel along right edge. The key will activate previously shown windows. I've been using this more lately because it displays my my image with a less distracting interface.

Working with tools:

B Activate the Masking Brush tool

G Activates the Gradient Mask tool

R Activates the Radial Mask tool

Cmd+J Clone & Stamp tool

Cmd+E Erase tool

C Enter the Crop tool

The two I use the most from these favs are the B and the C keys. They are super handy because the functions are otherwise buried in slower popup menus.

Brush and mask controls:

[ Decrease the brush radius

] Increase the brush radius

Shift+[ Decrease the brush softness

Shift+] Increase the brush softness

X Switching between painting/erasing modes

/ Show current layer mask in the form of red transparent image imposition

Cmd+I Invert the layer mask

When I get in a zone with brushing, I just want to work fast. These commands really speed things up.

Viewing your image:

Cmd++ Zoom In

Cmd+- Zoom Out

Cmd+1 Original Size

Cmd+0 Fit to Screen

F Show a full-screen preview of just the image

What's interesting is that most of these shortcuts work with the editing extension version of Luminar as well. So if you're using Luminar in conjunction with Photos for macOS, then you can accelerate your workflow there as well.

This is The Digital Story Podcast #636, May 22, 2018. Today's theme is "The True Summer Advantage" I'm Derrick Story.

Opening Monologue

Summer is the season of family vacations, solo adventure, BBQing, baseball games, picnics, and bare feet. But for photographers, there's another benefit that might not be immediately apparent, but can be wildly useful and enjoyable - and that's the subject of today's TDS photography podcast.

"The True Summer Advantage"

Light is the one thing that we need for photography, and there's plenty of it during the summer. And it's not so much the warmer days that I'm talking about, but the longer ones.

Even if you can't take as many photo vacations or workshops as you wish, with a little planning, you can substantially increase your captures. Here's how.

Let's say that you have a job that requires your presence from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm daily. If you're lucky, your workplace isn't far from home. Typically, that's not the case, however. But you can use this to your photography advantage.

If the commute to work is 30 minutes, for example, then that puts you in a new environment away from the house. In prime summer, there's working light until roughly 8:30 pm. Using your workplace as a jumping off point, you have 3 extra hours for creative pursuits that you did not have in the winter.

Open a map and draw a 1-hour radius from your work. What are the photo opportunities within that circle? Conceivably, you could bring your camera gear to work, leave the office at 5:30 pm, travel to one of these locations within radius, shoot a series of images, and be home by 9 pm.

That is one extra shoot that didn't require you to use any of your weekend or vacation time. And what if you identified numerous locations within this radius? (And that's not to mention revisiting the ones that you liked the first time.)

If you set this up to do just twice a month during the summer, you could add 6 or more quality photo shoots to your library without disrupting family obligations or daily routine. Think about the possibilities here.

The Portfolio Project - Week 3 - Wandering

The latest gallery that I added to my Portfoliobox project is Wandering. And the process that led me to this topic is quite interesting (as explained during the podcast).

I also tried a new feature. Mouse over any of the images on the gallery page, and a very attractive screen appears show the location for the shot. This allows me to add context to the image without cluttering up the gallery.

One of things that I really noticed when assembling this collection was how important it was for the images to work together on the page. I started with over 60 candidates, and experimented with many combinations before I settled on the 16 that's displayed there now.

I love using Portfoliobox for these reasons:

My images look great, both on my computer and on my mobile devices.

It's easy to use. Without any instruction, I'm adding a high quality page in just minutes.

It's affordable. There's a free plan and a Pro version. The Pro version is only $82.80 per year or $8.90 per month USD, and that's before the 20 percent TDS discount.

Highlights with the Pro Plan

In addition to unlimited pages, you get a personalized domain name, web hosting, and up to 1,000 images.

Panasonic Lumix TS7/FT7 is the first rugged compact camera with a built-in EVF

DP Review reports: "Panasonic has announced its Lumix DC-TS7 (FT7 outside of North America) which is the first waterproof/rugged compact to have an electronic viewfinder. The viewfinder is 0.2" in size and has an resolution equivalent to 1.17 million dots and a magnification of 0.45x equivalent. Obviously, you won't be able to use the EVF if you have a scuba mask on, but for shooting in bright light on land it could come in handy. There's also a 3" non-touch LCD available for composing and reviewing your photos."

"The TS7 has a 20.4MP, 1/2.3" BSI CMOS sensor and an F3.3-5.9, 28-128mm equiv. lens. It's able to go 31m/102ft underwater, can take a fall from 2m/6.6ft and can withstand 100kg / 220lb of crushing force. It's also freezeproof to -10C / +14F."

Signed Print Giveaway - If you watch one chapter for any of my training videos on lynda.com or LinkedIn Training during the month of May, send me a notification after the viewing via the Contact Form on The Nimble Photographer. (You can sign up for a free trial on lynda.com.) Just say, "I watched a chapter on lynda.com or LinkedIn Learning!"

You name will be entered into a drawing for a signed print from the Maui Project. The lucky recipient will be announced on the June 5, 2018 podcast. (Promotion ends on May 31, 2018. Void where prohibited.)

Reservation Forms have been sent for the Burney Falls and Lassen Volcanic National Park Workshop

We have our cabin reservations secured for Sept. 27-29, 2018 for the Burney Falls and Lassen Volcanic National Park Workshop. I sent out reservation forms this last weekend. So if you are on the reserve list, you should have received an invite.

Updates and Such

You can become a member of our Inner Circle by clicking on this link or by clicking on the Patreon tile that's on every page of The Digital Story.

B&H and Amazon tiles on www.thedigitalstory. If you click on them first, you're helping to support this podcast. And speaking of supporting this show, and big thanks to our Patreon Inner Circle members:

And finally, be sure to visit our friends at Red River Paper for all of your inkjet supply needs.

Podcast Sponsors

Portfoliobox - Create the site that your best images deserve by visiting Portfoliobox. And get a 20 percent discount by using our landing page!

The Nimbleosity Report

Do you want to keep up with the best content from The Digital Story and The Nimble Photographer? Sign up for The Nimbleosity Report, and receive highlights twice-a-month in a single page newsletter. Be a part of our community!

Want to Comment on this Post?

You can share your thoughts at the TDS Facebook page, where I'll post this story for discussion.

Take a look at this shot from Venice Beach, CA. This is an iconic California location with interesting characters, palm trees, and sandy walkways. People have been hanging out here and enjoying the sights and weather for decades. And for me, that history is part of the story, even for images captured today.

There are many different ways to paint this scene and tell the story. And to be honest, I would probably like most of them. I often shoot both digital and analog at the same time, then decide later which direction I want to go. For this series, the analog feel won hands down.

You don't have to shoot film to play in this sandbox. Every major processing application has film emulation presets available, either as part of the app, or via plugins. And what I've found is that I tend to lean on just a few of those presets for most of my shots because they have a look that I find appealing - just like I typically work with just a few film stocks.

Digital photography has brought amazing flexibility to our image making. And if we think to, we can choose from an array of looks to help us better tell the story.

Rock Luminar with my new Essential Training

You can discover just how flexible your digital photography can be with my Luminar 2018 Essential Training on lynda.com and on LinkedIn Learning. It's fun, and it's amazing what you can do with your images.

One of the things that came up while Mike Boening and I were talking quadcopters on a recent TDS Podcast, was the value of a landing pad for your drone. No, it's not a gimmick. It's a real accessory that I think you'll like once you try it.

I spend a lot of time landing on dirt roads or on the edges of vineyards. All of these places are extremely dusty, especially when landing a drone with four spinning propellers.

To help combat this problem, I bought myself a 32" AURTEC Drone Landing Pad for $22 that provides a nice big target for my DJI Spark to touch down. The pad collapses to a mere 12", just like the reflectors that we use for portraits. It includes a case, four stakes, and even landing lights, if you need them.

In addition to keeping my quadcopter cleaner, it's also fun to practice landing on my own instead of using the auto-land feature of the Spark. And for $22, I have to say, not only is it one of my most affordable accessories, it's also one of the coolest.

This is The Digital Story Podcast #635, May 15, 2018. Today's theme is "The Right Drone for You - An Interview with Mike Boening" I'm Derrick Story.

Opening Monologue

Ever since I read about the new Mavic Air, I have wondered if I should replace my beloved Spark. To help me decide, I called up my friend and drone enthusiast Mike Boening to discuss the latest in quadcopters, their accessories, and a few important flying tips. I also recorded it to share with you on this week's TDS Podcast.

The Portfolio Project - Week 2 - Portraits of Women

My thinking was that I have all these galleries that I've produced for these women, wouldn't it be fun to pick one image from each of my favorites, and build a Portfoliobox page with those shots? And the answer is: it was very fun.

As with my first gallery, the bulk of the work was deciding which shots I wanted to feature in the portfolio. Once I made those decisions, I put the gallery together in Portfoliobox in just a few minutes. I love using their service for these reasons:

My images look great, both on my computer and on my mobile devices.

It's easy to use. Without any instruction, I built my first two pages in under an hour. I will be adding a page a week throughout May.

It's affordable. There's a free plan and a Pro version. The Pro version is only $82.80 per year or $8.90 per month USD, and that's before the 20 percent TDS discount.

Highlights with the Pro Plan

In addition to unlimited pages, you get a personalized domain name, web hosting, and up to 1,000 images.

Signed Print Giveaway - If you watch one chapter for any of my training videos on lynda.com or LinkedIn Training during the month of May, send me a notification after the viewing via the Contact Form on The Nimble Photographer. (You can sign up for a free trial on lynda.com.) Just say, "I watched a chapter on lynda.com or LinkedIn Learning!"

You name will be entered into a drawing for a signed print from the Maui Project. The lucky recipient will be announced on the June 5, 2018 podcast. (Promotion ends on May 31, 2018. Void where prohibited.)

Reservation Forms have been sent for the Burney Falls and Lassen Volcanic National Park Workshop

We have our cabin reservations secured for Sept. 27-29, 2018 for the Burney Falls and Lassen Volcanic National Park Workshop. I sent out reservation forms this last weekend. So if you are on the reserve list, you should have received an invite.

Updates and Such

You can become a member of our Inner Circle by clicking on this link or by clicking on the Patreon tile that's on every page of The Digital Story.

B&H and Amazon tiles on www.thedigitalstory. If you click on them first, you're helping to support this podcast. And speaking of supporting this show, and big thanks to our Patreon Inner Circle members:

And finally, be sure to visit our friends at Red River Paper for all of your inkjet supply needs.

Podcast Sponsors

Portfoliobox - Create the site that your best images deserve by visiting Portfoliobox. And get a 20 percent discount by using our landing page!

The Nimbleosity Report

Do you want to keep up with the best content from The Digital Story and The Nimble Photographer? Sign up for The Nimbleosity Report, and receive highlights twice-a-month in a single page newsletter. Be a part of our community!

Want to Comment on this Post?

You can share your thoughts at the TDS Facebook page, where I'll post this story for discussion.

As I mentioned in last week's podcast, I had allowed become caught up in social networks for sharing my photography, and I hadn't really established a portfolio site. When I finally stopped to think about it, I realized that this was a problem that needed to be fixed.

So I started working with the folks at Portfoliobox to build an online presence of my favorite images. My plan was to add a page a week for the month of May. The first week was "Cuba," and the second installment is Portraits of Women.

The Portfoliobox editor. Building pages, then adjusting them later, is a simple process with Portfoliobox.

In addition to the images, I also created a true About Me page that I like a lot better than the canned versions on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social sites. This version is cleaner, better designed, and includes only the stuff that's important to me.

The next two pages that I have planned in this project are "Events" and "Street Photography." After that, I will add pages on a thematic basis. So for example, if I wanted a different group of images to represent my travel photography, I would turn off the navigation for "Cuba," create a new page such as "Iceland," and list it in the top menu. The links for all the pages I create would remain valid. It's just what would be featured in top navigation... sort of like a museum rotating its various installations.

After two weeks, I have to say that the Portfolio Project feels really good. I do like posting on social, and none of that is going to change. But having this portfolio site fills a different need, one that allows me to step back and curate some of my favorite images from over the years.

You can share your thoughts at the TDS Facebook page, where I'll post this story for discussion.

Among its many virtues, the DJI Spark has an excellent video camera with 2-way gimbal built in. It's obviously great for making movies from a high vantage point. But thanks to the PolarPro Katana DJI Spark Tray ($49.99), we can use our quadcopter on the ground as well.

The concept is simple and the execution is excellent. PolarPro designed a lightweight, balanced mount for both the Spark and a smartphone (up to an iPhone 8 Plus in size) that makes it easy to record handheld video using the Spark's 2-axis stabilized gimbal camera. The phone, which serves as the video monitor, can be mounted at either a 45 or 90 degree angle. The Spark is mounted securely beneath it using a cleverly designed harness. The entire rig can be set up in just a minute or two.

To use the tandem, fire up both the Spark and the phone, connect them via the DJI GO app, switch to video camera mode, and start recording. It's really that simple. The Spark's gimbal will keep your handheld movie as steady as a rock.

The Katana also works well as a steady grip for recording video with the iPhone itself. I found it much easier to capture footage with the grip than when trying to hold the iPhone by itself.

The PolarPro Katana is very light and only about a foot long. For easy storage in my backpack, I unscrew the phone mount and rubber band it inside the harness. That way, I always have it with me for video recording with both the Spark and the iPhone.

For the accompanying audio, I use an ultra-compact Instamic, then add the audio to the video when I'm editing in Final Cut X.

There are times that we can't fly our aircraft for various reasons. But if you have the PolarPro Katana with you, you can still capture great video footage.

Opening Monologue

If you're like me at all, you have your images spread across various sites online. At one time, you may have had a master plan - best shots go here, family stuff there, everyday life somewhere else. And chances are, as good as that plan was, it went out the door long time ago. So maybe it's time to revisit your portfolio site - a place for only your best shots, the ones that you would show to other photographers and potential clients. Creating such a place these days is easy and very satisfying. And that's the focus of today's show.

What's Your Online Gallery Strategy?

My original plan wasn't too bad. Instagram for everyday life, Facebook for news and conversation, Smugmug for client galleries, and Flickr for the photography that I wanted to show off.

The problem was, however, that Flickr is just so darn versatile. I started using its embed feature to publish photos on other sites, and the next thing I knew, it wasn't my best work. It was just my work. That's fine. But it left me without a true portfolio page. I knew it was time to do something.

As I was thinking about this, two other important things happened. First, I was contacted by the folks at Portfoliobox. They asked me if I would take a look at their product. Not long after that, I had a very interesting conversation with an upcoming photographer. I told him he could ask me anything he wanted. His question? "What should I do about an online portfolio?"

I don't believe these three events were coincidence. So I decided to investigate the best lead I had: Portfoliobox. More on that in a bit.

So why do we need an online portfolio?

We need a place where our images look really good - By now everyone knows that Facebook makes your stuff look like crap. Flickr is better, but cluttered as well. When you open a real portfolio, one with paper and pages, the images are presented in the highest quality possible. So it's an opportunity to display our photography as we see it during creation. And we don't have to apologize for the quality.

Our portfolio page is dedicated to great photography, and nothing more - Social network sites pull you into to fishing for likes, sharing, and posting everyday. A portfolio page is more like a fine wine that we craft over time. Forget about likes, just put up great images.

It's a chance to tell a story - Photo essays can be powerful. But we need to be able to craft those stories without clutter and interference. A portfolio site provides the platform to do so.

Custom Domain Name - Nothing fancy here, just www.derrickstoryphotography.com. But using your name or photo business name for your images establishes your credibility when people search for your work.

Links to your other sites - Once you've established your creditability as a photographer, then people will look at your other sites in a more favorable light. Put those links on your about page.

By way of example, I've begun a portfolio page that you can view - www.derrickstoryphotography.com. I'll be adding to it weekly over the month of May, so together we can watch it grow.

Portfoliobox - A High Quality, Affordable Gallery Site for Photographers

As I mentioned earlier in the show, my quest for a gallery page let me to Portfoliobox, based in Stockholm, Sweden, with over 740K users from around the world. Here's what I love about this service.

My images look great, both on my computer and on my mobile devices.

It's easy to use. Without any instruction, I built my first two pages in under an hour. I will be adding a page a week throughout May.

It's affordable. There's a free plan and a Pro version. The Pro version is only $82.80 per year or $8.90 per month USD, and that's before the 20 percent TDS discount.

Highlights with the Pro Plan

In addition to unlimited pages, you get a personalized domain name, web hosting, and up to 1,000 images.

Pour One Out for Casio: Pioneering Digital Camera Maker Pulls Out of Market

"Casio, known today for rather pedestrian point-and-shoot compact cameras, wasn't always that way. In the late 1990s, they were at the forefront of digital imaging, but now, that's no more.

A report on Nikkei indicates that the electronics giant will drop its compact cameras and leave the market. A translation of the page pointed to a declining compact camera market as the reason.

Indeed that seems to be the case with Casio in the U.S.A. A quick trip to their website doesn't even show cameras under their "products" menu and B&H Photo doesn't list any of their cameras.

In the 1990s, it was so weird to frame up an image using an LCD screen. It just wasn't a thing. In fact, this was the first consumer digital camera to offer up a screen for composing and viewing photos, a fact that they even tout in the instruction manual. There was room for 96 images on the camera's built-in memory. The terminology wasn't even invented to describe using this whole process. Casio had to tell people to "think of camera memory like a 96-page album of the images you record," which sounds quaint today. The main way the manual suggested to save your images was to hook up to a TV and record the images onto a video tape."

Signed Print Giveaway - If you watch one chapter for any of my training videos on lynda.com or LinkedIn Training during the month of May, send me a notification after the viewing via the Contact Form on The Nimble Photographer. (You can sign up for a free trial on lynda.com.) Just say, "I watched a chapter on lynda.com or LinkedIn Learning!"

You name will be entered into a drawing for a signed print from the Maui Project. The lucky recipient will be announced on the June 5, 2018 podcast. (Promotion ends on May 31, 2018. Void where prohibited.)

Reservation Forms have been sent for the Burney Falls and Lassen Volcanic National Park Workshop

We have our cabin reservations secured for Sept. 27-29, 2018 for the Burney Falls and Lassen Volcanic National Park Workshop. I sent out reservation forms this last weekend. So if you are on the reserve list, you should have received an invite.

Updates and Such

You can become a member of our Inner Circle by clicking on this link or by clicking on the Patreon tile that's on every page of The Digital Story.

B&H and Amazon tiles on www.thedigitalstory. If you click on them first, you're helping to support this podcast. And speaking of supporting this show, and big thanks to our Patreon Inner Circle members:

And finally, be sure to visit our friends at Red River Paper for all of your inkjet supply needs.

Podcast Sponsors

Portfoliobox - Create the site that your best images deserve by visiting Portfoliobox. And get a 20 percent discount by using our landing page!

The Nimbleosity Report

Do you want to keep up with the best content from The Digital Story and The Nimble Photographer? Sign up for The Nimbleosity Report, and receive highlights twice-a-month in a single page newsletter. Be a part of our community!

Want to Comment on this Post?

You can share your thoughts at the TDS Facebook page, where I'll post this story for discussion.

One of the things that I like about catching a ride with Uber or Lyft is that I can enjoy a little photography along the way.

"Skateboarder with Dog" - Captured from the front seat of an Uber ride when leaving Haight Ashbury for downtown SF. Olympus PEN-F, 14-42mm EZ lens, processed in Photos for macOS with the Luminar 2018 editing extension. Photo by Derrick Story.

I've never had a problem taking a seat in the front with either Uber or Lyft drivers. This enables me to shoot both ahead, and to the side. I do ask before rolling down the side window, however.

As for the straight-ahead shots, I pay close attention to the reflections in the windshield. Many times, especially in big cities with tall buildings, they're not a problem. But when on the open highway in bright sun, they can present a challenge.

I typically use a compact zoom lens for this type of photography. My goal, besides getting the shot, is not to appear too serious or professional. I don't want to make the driver or the subjects uncomfortable. I'm just a tourist enthralled by the exciting sights and sounds of the city.

Letting someone else drive the car has so many advantages, including the bounty of photo opportunities. Maybe someday, when self-driving cars become the norm, this will become even easier.

Rock Luminar with my new Essential Training

That's how I processed this shot...

You learn all the ins and outs of Luminar 2018 via my Essential Training on lynda.com and on LinkedIn Learning. It's fun, and I promise, you will learn a lot.

You can share your thoughts at the TDS Facebook page, where I'll post this story for discussion.